We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy A Series of Conversations with The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates

January 16, 2018
Washington, DC

In 2008, The Atlantic’s national correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates went from believing that a black president was impossible to being challenged by the sudden prospect of one. In his new book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, Coates examines the threads between the unprecedented election of Barack Obama and what fueled the election of Donald Trump, who Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”

The book revisits each year of the Obama administration through Coates’ experiences and observations, all of which are linked together through iconic essays previously published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” and more. The Atlantic's Contributing Editor Alex Wagner will appear in conversation with Coates.

October 10, 2017 | 7:00 pm ET
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture
1400 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20560Hosted by The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture